If I had to wager, I say the attempted heist happened in Costa Rica. Maybe right in Manuel Antonio park. The raccoons there are brazen thieves protected by park rules. They would attempt a grab a couple times an hour. We had to take turns guarding our backpacks. Tying packs down didn’t help. They would just unzip and grab. It got so routine, I even forgot to use a stick a couple times. Resorted to hard slapping a racoon while it’s working to unzip a pack. I got dirty looks of “Hey, I don’t bother you at work! Get lost!” until they’d give up (for 10 minutes) and run off.
Never lost anything but a baggy with ice. Lots of other people on the beach weren’t so lucky.
But karma is a bitch for raccoons. Monkeys would swoop in and steal from the raccoons. It never got old watching raccoons chasing a monkey with a sandwich down the beach.
